Opinion: Give schools chance to succeed

Vermonters care a great deal about our public schools. Despite our schools' relatively high cost (by national standards) they continue to be well-supported overall by the communities they serve. The approval by voters of over 90 percent of school budgets this year is evidence of that support.

The success of Vermont schools is closely tied to the value and responsibility that communities hold for them. The interest, energies and ideas contributed to their local school by parents, students and community members have helped schools to develop and improve.

Over the past two decades the number of students enrolled in Vermont schools has dropped while the cost of operating our schools has stayed relatively constant. As a result the cost to educate each student has increased, and property tax rates have increased as well.

In response to public concerns about education spending and taxes, the Vermont Legislature has been laboring this year to find solutions that have proven elusive.

With direction from Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Vermont Agency of Education, the solution to the "spending problem" that has been proposed by the House of Representatives is the mandatory consolidation of Vermont school districts and elimination of financial supports for schools of small size or declining enrollments. According to H.361, passed by the House earlier this month, school districts would be required to merge with other school districts to form an "integrated educational systems" of no fewer than 1,100 students. In addition, the "Small Schools Grants" program that provides annual grants to about one-third of Vermont's school districts would be phased out, as would a "soft-landing" provision now in place that protects schools from sudden drops in enrollment.

Given the large-scale changes to Vermont schools that would be set into motion were this legislation to become law, the Legislature should be certain that this plan will reduce spending and cut taxes. It's not clear that it will.

Of the 285 school districts now educating children across our state, 95 qualified to receive a "Small Schools Grant" this year from the state of Vermont. Why are lawmakers considering removing these grants, when the financial savings are so minimal and the potential for harm to the students in those 95 schools so great?

One answer could be that lawmakers doubt the effectiveness of small schools, and believe that removing these supports will force communities to seriously consider other options for educating their students.

Do we have evidence that one size of school or another is intrinsically better? Is it wise to convert a diverse, successful system into a new system of uncertain results, when we haven't yet taken the time to figure out which parts of the current system are effective and worth saving?

In 2014 the Vermont State Board of Education approved the Vermont Educational Quality Standards. These standards spell out in detail the attributes that should be present in a school providing a high quality education. The EQS process also provides a means to identify areas in which a school needs to improve, and provides support to make those improvements. It also gives the State Board of Education the power to close schools in situations where required progress has not been made. Coupled with Act 77 that directs that each student have a personalize learning plan that provides flexible ways to earn a diploma, the EQS process is a potent agent for improving schools.

But neither the EQS nor Act 77 has been given a chance to work. We need to provide the Vermont Agency of Education with the funding and personnel to begin implementing these standards, so we can find out school-by-school what is working and what is not, and what improvements need to be made in each case. Then we need to help those schools improve.

Until the EQS and Act 77 are given time to do what they were intended to do, we should not be forcing schools to close or merge or cut staff simply because of their size. Lawmakers should not be mandating consolidation of schools before we have a handle on the educational strengths and challenges of the schools we have now.